Icarus
by Kitchuu
Summary: Ikki/Kazu. Ikki sees for himself, a very lonely future among the skies. Kazu thinks he's pretty selfish.


Disclaimer: Air Gear and it's characters don't belong to me.

Icarus

by Kitchuu

---

_Oh, Icarus, lonely son of Daedalus, for the chance to fly higher, to fly further, to soar above all else, you gave up your wings and fell, but God didn't save you._

_For this, you died alone._

For all that he was failing school, Ikki wasn't stupid. He saw for himself, a future where he'd attained the air regalia, where he was the god of all flight. He saw himself gliding along side the swallows and the crows, on the road only he could see, in the brilliant expanse of untainted blue. He saw himself crowned amongst the clouds, always, always looking up and never back.

He saw himself alone.

He saw Akito cry, grow cold, then distant. He saw Akito feign happiness until his heart bled dry. He who never had anyone but himself and Ikki, and had fallen in love and been left behind. He saw Akito die.

He saw Agito, eye patch forever gone, suffer, saw him writhe in a personal agony for years for losing half of himself, burning with a hatred for Ikki, who killed Akito. He saw Agito conquer, saw him forget, saw him bloodthirsty and cruel and broken. Ikki saw Akira replace him as Agito's savior. He saw Akira fix him then, dedicate his life to picking up the broken pieces and superglue them together again until Agito was whole again. He saw them together, himself long forgotten, because he hadn't been there.

He saw Onigiri with a girl, with two, three. He saw Onigiri lose sight of the purpose of A-T's, saw the perverted pig use his road for all the wrong reasons. When Onigiri's last pair of skates broke, he threw them away and bought a new pair, as if the treasured blades were on par with a child's toy. He stopped training, and for this he lost Kazu, but no one cared, because he had no team, because Ikki had vanished. He saw Onigiri grow corrupt.

He saw Buccha give up Air Treks all together. He who had never fit into the ragtag group to begin with had no reason to stay in Kogarasumaru when everyone else parted ways. He saw the large man find his life somewhere else, in a monastery, in a restaurant, behind a business firm, anything with an absence of A-T's.

He saw Ringo turn from him, forsaking him for being selfish. He saw her love him from miles away, saw her in America, in Brazil, in Italy. When he conquered the Tropheum and usurped the regalia, he saw her disband Sleeping Forest. She would run her road, tearing and saving those who needed to be saved from themselves, because she would forever regret that she couldn't save him. Ikki saw Ringo marry her tuner, saw her cry his name on sleepless nights, he who had rejected her for someone else.

He saw his sisters there, far down below his kingdom in the sky, on the plaintive green Earth, looking up and watching him, support and love radiating like sunlight on a beach. He saw himself speaking out to them, screaming even, but they couldn't hear him, because he was so far away, an unreachable God.

Ikki saw intuitively, that this is what the future of all those he held dear to him would be, but he couldn't quite convince himself that they were more important than the absolute freedom of flight.

It was a hard battle, a decision he never thought he'd have to come to make, but one he knew would eventually come, so he prepared, and come it did indeed. He had made his decision long ago, and there would be no turning back, because he was _oh so close_.

Kazu stood in front of him now, the last of all his former closest friends to confront him. The others had cried, had shouldered him with a glare, had screamed until they were hoarse, tried to talk him out of it, even beat him up – and this he allowed without retaliation, it was the least he could do for them. Dimly he wondered what his best friend of fourteen years would say, if it'd be as cliché as all the rest. He could see the rising sun beyond a head of blond hair and a white beanie, and he wanted to rise with it.

"Hey," said Ikki, _knowing_ that the other boy would never speak first, "What's up man?"

But Kazu had nothing to say. He stared without seeing anything at all.

He'd been asked to come persuade, beat up, and yell at Ikki by all of their mutual friends, as well as some of the many interesting characters the whole team had befriended –not just Ikki. He'd put it off for as long as he could, for so long that Ikki himself thought he'd never show up. He'd prepared a speech of some sort, half full of anger and half of love for the other, as a friend. He'd waited at this miserable, chain link fence for nearly two hours before Ikki had shown up, and now that he was here, he couldn't remember a word of what he'd wanted to say.

As if realizing that he wouldn't be getting any reply, Ikki, all his worldly possessions in hand, turned away to leave, with the blond still staring at him blankly. Over his shoulder, he called back without turning around, "Thanks for seeing me off man. I'll see you later, Kazu."

Kazu couldn't think, he couldn't feel, and his brain had shut itself down, as was the case whenever he was shoved into a corner like this. Watching Ikki's back grow smaller and fainter, as if they were in a cheesy, two cent drama, something switched on in him, and it wasn't his rational thought process.

Functioning on autopilot, the jet raced after the renegade crow, and barreled into him so fast that they both fell over on hard, unforgiving gravel.

Kazu was almost straddling Ikki in this position, and his hat was gone – had flown off when he ran, but Ikki did nothing to get back up.

"You!" he suddenly snarled, in an extremely un-Kazu like manner, "are a complete _asshole_." And then he punched the taller boy squarely in the face. There was a satisfying crunch where bone met bone, and a spurt of blood speckled both of them crimson red.

For a moment, neither of them said anything, and then Ikki slowly reached a hand up to touch his nose, and confirmed that yes, it was broken. He looked up then, making eye contact with unguarded baby blue, and shivered. Only Kazu, he thought, could have eyes that made even the sky look dull, because the sky couldn't scream fifty different shades of love and hate at him soundlessly, simultaneously.

"What do you want?" he asked, knowing already what the answer would be. "I want to fly, Kazu. You of all people should be able to understand, this need to break the chains that bind us…"

Kazu repressed the urge to strangle him, and glowered. "Idiot. What kind of bird would rip off his own wings to fly?" He lowered his eyes and whispered the next line, "Would you really be happy flying without us?"

And Ikki, who had known this would be asked, shrugged. "You think I haven't though about that?"

"And you're still leaving _anyways_?"

"Yeah."

Kazu gave up then. He laughed a little, a bitter, defeated sound, and abruptly stood up.

"Asshole. I guess I knew you'd do this, because you've always been a stubborn, selfish ass. Never did listen to me, huh."

He sighed a little, and looked towards the flames beyond the horizon. He saw the same sky that Ikki saw, but found little comfort in that cold, heartless painting of blue. "Good luck." he said, and then he left.

Ikki trailed to his feet, and followed after him for a eternity long seconds. "Wait." he said.

Kazu didn't look back, didn't even stop. "…You didn't wait for us when we asked." And just like that, Kazu found himself slammed against a nearby wall, mouth caught in a surprisingly brutal, passionate kiss that left him breathless and confused, and too shocked to respond. The moment he was released, he instantly reached up to wipe his mouth with a sleeve. Ikki was still pressed against him, dried blood disfiguring his face, and body a burning warmth. "Fuck! What was- "

"Maybe," the crow drawled, "I wasn't asked by the right person."

And_then_, it clicked. All the pieces fell into place like one of Yoshitsune's tetris games, and Kazu flinched away, eyes shielded, but not really getting anywhere because he was still pinned.

"Fuck, you were never going to leave us behind to begin with. I can't believe you, you _moron_. All this for…all this…" and he trailed off, not quite able to bring himself to finish that sentence.

"Actually, I probably would've left if you said no. Would've had to go to Germany or something to find another cute blond." Ikki was grinning now, looking straight at him, eyes carefully still guarded, but far more friendly than they had been in a long time, towards anyone.

Kazu smiled for a split second, before he shoved Ikki off of him and glowered. "You," he began, thoroughly riled and inwardly relieved, "SUCK at asking people out. I have a fucking _girlfriend_ you know."

"Had, you mean, a girlfriend." Ikki backed off, teasing now.

"I can't believe you. I thought you were straight."

"And I thought you'd let me leave. We're even."

"How the hell does that even make sense to you?! You can't DO things like that. Do you have any idea how much trouble you've caused everyone? You think…"

And Ikki stopped listening, when Kazu went into his full blown rant, because he'd looked up again, towards that never ending sky, and saw himself soaring, on wings sewn with love, the best kind of never melting wax. He'd known from the very beginning, that this was the future he needed.

_Oh, Icarus, had only you known love, God would have saved you when you fell, for ambition is not a sin, but loneliness condemns indefinitely._

_For this, you died alone._

---

End.


End file.
